Last Sunday my family took a trip to Frankfurt to attend an international church there. Throughout the ride up all we heard from the children was: "are we there yet?" Or "how much longer?" or "are we ever going to get there?"

Did you ever notice that those kinds of questions never come when the kids are having a great time? After church we took the kids to the Opel Zoo, do you know they never once asked "How much longer?" "Are we done yet?" "Can we go home now"?

"Are We There Yet" is a question for the hard times.

Even though I doubt that King David had ever gone on a road trip in a car with children, he captures the essence of that question remarkably well in the first line of Psalm 13, "How Long, O Lord?"

Now I know that thatís a question none of you have probably ever asked, but itís a question that Iíve asked the Lord a few times recently. So Iím going to preach to myself this morning and just maybe what the Lord has to say to me through His word will speak to some of you also.

As we read the remainder of Psalm 13 I think weíll find that what David has recorded is a process, a change in his attitude and thinking as He waits upon the Lord. A path upward, out of Despair and into Hope and Trust. But David begins that journey at a place where probably all of us have been and a place that perhaps some of us are right now. David isÖ

I. Stewing

Verses 1-2How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?How long will you hide your face from me?How long must I wrestle with my thoughtsand every day have sorrow in my heart?How long will my enemy triumph over me?

One of the great lessons of the Psalms that David writes is that it is OK to be honest with God about how we feel. God already knows and it doesnít really make sense to try to hide it from Him. Intimacy with Him means opening up our hearts.

David faced many trials in his life. Perhaps he wrote this psalm during the time that he was on the run from King Saul--though he knew God had a plan for his life, it seemed to be on hold and he was living as a refuge. Maybe it was written as he experienced the sting of Godís displeasure with him after he had sinned so terribly by taking another manís wife. Whenever he wrote it, itís a striking picture of a frustrated heart crying out again and again how long, how long, how long and once more how long.

Phillips Brooks was a great New England preacher of another age, he was known as a man of great his poise and quiet manner. At times, however, even he had his moments. One day a friend saw him feverishly pacing the floor like a caged lion. "Whatís the trouble, Mr. Brooks?" he asked.

"The trouble is that Iím in a hurry, but God isnít!"

In the early years of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln became so angered at the inactivity of Union commander George McClellan that the president wrote his commanding general this one-sentence letter: "If you donít want to use the army, I should like to borrow it for a while.